Tammy & Victor Jih Win The Amazing Race!

Posted on May 11, 2009 by John

Last February, I had blogged about the premiere of the fourteenth season of The Amazing Race with Tammy & Victor being an Asian American older brother & young sister team. Well, Tammy & Victor are the victors, winning one million dollars and the various travel prizes they won coming in first in various legs of the race. Congratulations to them both!

In a come from behind move with Victor beating out Luke (who got first to the final road block task), Victor quickly and correctly identified and ordered eleven surf boards with symbols from each leg of the race, allowing team Tammy & Victor to get to a cab and to the finish line first. The only real team meltdown that Tammy & Victor had was when they were arguing with each other when Tammy thought Victor was leading them the wrong way in Romania, and was being stubborn and finally relented to Tammy’s suggestion of backtracking.

The next-to-the last leg of the race had Tammy & Victor at a slight advantage when they were in Beijing — they had both been to Beijing before and spoke Mandarin Chinese. But there is also a lot of luck involved in The Amazing Race, mostly whether or not a team gets a taxi driver who knows where they are actually going or possibly being on a delayed flight, which happened to Tammy & Victor early on, causing them to be the leading team to a trailing team.

Tammy & Victor were the strongest team overall, as they had come in first in four of the previous legs of the race; the mother and deaf-son team of Margie & Luke had won three of the previous legs of the race, and the former cheerleader team of Jaime & Cara had won none, yet came in second in the final leg to Tammy & Victor.

What cracked me up with Tammy & Victor throughout the race was that both of them would make comments every so often they would make self-deprecating comments about themselves:  Victor saying “that’s Asian engineering” when they completed building a tall wall of logs, or when they were in China and saying that they had to win that leg or they would bring shame to their parents, or in the final episode, when Tammy said she could be more than a “geeky math nerd.”

Tammy & Victor now join an illustrative group of Asian American reality television winners such as Survivor’s Yul Kwon, Last Comic Standing’s Dat Phan, and I am sure others. I hope to see more Asian Americans on reality TV, whether or not they win the show. And I really do hope to be able to meet Tammy & Victor – I’m sure I know someone in the San Francisco Bay Area that is connected to either of them within one degree or two of Facebook.  Hint, hint.

Posted in Current Events, Entertainment, Observations | 17 Comments

European Designed “Chopsticks Aids” IKEA Like, or Culturally Insensitive?

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Ernie

tukaaniOh, Europeans! While Americans fumble with chopsticks in Asians restaurants, reminding everyone how smug they are because they are being multi-cultural by using unfamiliar new eating utensils, the Europeans are just straight-up designing different interfaces to eat Asian food entirely. (Or as we Asian-Americans call it, food.)

Take for example the TUKAANI, a “hand made eating device for Asian food consumers in the West,” developed by Ugandan-born Finnish designer Lincoln Kayiwa to be used as an unspoken alternative to chopsticks. The design may be inspired by a toucan’s bill, but it looks more like a pair of salad tongs that curves like a dildo.  (What, you don’t see it? It totally does.) Thankfully, it’s hand-washable, something disposable wooden chopsticks don’t have the luxury of being. Someone should come up with metal chopsticks or something.

But at least the TUKAANI looks sophisticated and classy (well, as sophisticated as curved salad tongs can look); behold, the Chopsticks Aid, where a Polish guy named Jaroslav Kucera designed this spork-like attachment which, combined with a pair of chopsticks, gives anyone the ability to stab peeled edamame and fish balls — so long as you can withstand the looks of judgment from everyone else in the restaurant.

So the question becomes this: what’s more embarssing — watching white people eat sushi or noodles or a bowl of rice with something that looks like it came from the Maker Faire?  Or having them play the drums or doing the walrus face before their meal?

(Hat tip: Jun, via the 8asians tumblr)

Posted in Food & Drink | 26 Comments

Love and Chinese Families

Posted on May 10, 2009 by Tim

chinese_love_by_phll751I recently discovered a blog called “Being Asian in America“. It’s fairly new (first post was May 3 of this year), and the writer seems quite young, but he strikes on quite a few interesting topics. One topic that immediately caught my attention was titled “If you’re Asian, you don’t love your family“. While he used the generic term Asian in his title, when you read the post, you can immediately tell he was referring specifically to Chinese families, although his title was a little tongue-in-cheek. The author doesn’t identify himself or even give himself a pseudonym, so I’ll refer to him as Anon in this post.

Anon’s claim is that you don’t hear the word “love” in Chinese families, that unlike TV families, we don’t tell each other we love each other, and instead Chinese parents criticize their children. But Anon does realize in the end that the criticism, and comparing of kids to one another, the constant nagging are all forms of love, whether we express that love in the form of words or not. He also realizes that using the word love too much tends to cheapen it, so in conclusion he’s glad his parents show their love the way that they do.

While I was a little irked that Anon’s title was in jest, I did agree with him on the main points of his post. I too never heard the words “Wo ai ni” (I love you) in Chinese, nor did I ever hear them in English, it was always implicitly understood in my family that my parents loved me and my siblings. The words “Wo ai ni” sound funny even in my head, as words you tell your lover (sparingly) but not your family. How could you not understand that your parents taking you to the emergency room when you were sick was a form of love? My mother especially, showed love in little ways through our childhood years. We grew up with little money, but she’d always find a way to get us special presents we knew the family really couldn’t afford, whether it was a new sweater instead of hand-me down clothing or a special day at Adventureland, a local amusement park.

Yes, my parents criticized, nagged, and complained about my choices like any other Chinese parent, but I always understood and counted on that parental love. I did always wonder why we didn’t hug and kiss like American families on TV, and maybe that’s why today, I hug and kiss my daughter and tell her I love her quite often. But Anon’s post made me reflect, that maybe I need to show my love more often, rather than speak my love, and that the act of showing it is the more important one.

Posted in Family, Observations | Tagged | 24 Comments

Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in the Bay Area

Posted on May 10, 2009 by John

sfHappy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! Designated by the United States government in 1992, May was chosen because of the first Japanese to immigrate to the U.S. was in May of 1843, and the transcontinental railroad — mostly completed by Chinese works — was completed in May of 1869. In President Obama’s proclimation of APAHM, he pays tribute to the struggles of the past:

“Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have endured and overcome hardship and heartache. In the earliest years, tens of thousands of Gold Rush pioneers, coal miners, transcontinental railroad builders, as well as farm and orchard laborers, were subject to unjust working conditions, prejudice, and discrimination–yet they excelled. Even in the darkness of the Exclusion Act and Japanese internment, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have persevered, providing for their families and creating opportunities for their children.”

Earlier this week, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus also released a proclamation highlighting President Obama’s own personal ties to Asia and the Asian & Canadian American experience, with a half Indonesian sister and a Chinese-Candian brother-in-law.

But you don’t have to have be related to the president to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, especially in the Bay Area, as there are number of events that have been happening in the Bay Area alone:

Posted in Local, San Francisco Bay Area | Leave a comment

One Show Only! Catch 18MMW and OPM Comedy together at the Los Angeles Comedy Festival

Posted on May 10, 2009 by jozjozjoz

I know it’s Mother’s Day, but if you’re in L.A. and find yourself wanting to have a few laughs this evening, you’ll get two awesome Asian American comedy groups in one at the L.A. Comedy Festival tonight — OPM Comedy and 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors (plus Matt Knudsen) will be performing in the same block at the ACME Comedy Theatre at 7:00pm. The 75 minute show shared is by all 3 acts, and both OPM and 18MMW have promised all new material for the performance.

opm-fistsoffunnyOPM brings “FISTS OF FUNNY,” an all-new ass-kicking melee of sketch comedy featuring the Economy, Kim Jong-Il, a tribute to the late, great Bruce Lee… and more. (My buddies Ewan Chung and Randall Park are in this, along with Lanny Joon, Charles Kim, John Lopez, Lee Sherman, Jae Suh, Rodney To, and Dave Wilder.) If you can’t make this show, you can still catch OPM at the LA Comedy Fest on May 15 and 16, as well.

18mmw-bowdownTrue to their style of poking fun at hot topics, 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors presents the World Premiere of “AVATAR: The RACE BENDER,” (see Moye’s previous 8Asians post: White-Washing Avatar: The Last Airbender?) which also includes a sketch about Korean cannibalism (you’ll have to go to find out what that’s about!). Starring funny men Michael Chih Ming Hornbuckle, Peter J. Wong, and Greg Watanabe, this is your last chance to see 18MMW at the LA Comedy Fest.

Los Angeles Comedy Festival
Sunday, May 10 at 7:00pm — OPM, Matt Knudsen, 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors
ACME Comedy Theatre, 135 N. La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90036
RSVP: Call 323-463-2942

Tickets are $10 online, $12 at the door
OR for five times the fun — purchase the 5 Show Pass, and select any FIVE shows (including ACME shows) for just $40 – a savings of $10!

Posted in Current Events, Entertainment, Southern California | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Laura Shigihara Sings the Catchiest Song Ever for “Plants vs. Zombies”

Posted on May 8, 2009 by Ernie

You’ve probably played Plants vs. Zombies, even though you never played it before — as one of those tower defense games on the web that are hot right now with the art direction of a Bedazzled game, think of the Plants vs Zombies as one part real-time strategy game, one part flash applet that housewives and stoner college students play during the day to pass the time.

With zombies.

But the reason why I bring up the game is specifically to call out the promotional music video made for the game, There’s A Zombie On Your Lawn, a delightful little ditty about a sunflower and the hordes of zombies coming her way. Written and performed by freelance video game composer (and half-Japanese) Laura Shigihara, I’m fairly certain that this is the most adorable tune about zombies as a video game promotion ever; while the original English version of the music video is adequate, 芝生にゾンビが, the Japanese translation of this song — done at the last minute with zombie voice overs by her father — puts this over the top in fucking kawaiiness. MP3’s of both the English and Japanese version are available on her blog, and are a perfect addition to your cute J-Pop songs about zombies mixtape.

Posted in Entertainment, Music, Video Games | 7 Comments

On Talking With or Without an Accent

Posted on May 7, 2009 by Tim

CB103295I recently read a blog post from Louis Yap, an 18 year old Malaysian, on the topic of putting on a fake American accent when talking to foreigners. Apparently a lot of Malaysians drop their typical Malay accent and go for an American or English accent when approached by a non-Asian.

His reflections on this topic made me think about how the way I talk has been a major influence on how people react to me when they first meet me. While I was born in Taiwan, I moved to the U.S. when I was just shy of three years of age. I picked up American English easily, and while Chinese was my first language, I speak English completely accent free.

When I was younger and I lived on Long Island, I would regularly have people approach me, and say things like “Wow you speak English so well”. I always had the immediate gut reaction of wanting to say “Of course I do you dimwit, I was raised here”, but usually kept my mouth shut instead. These people were clueless, because there were few Asians if any on Long Island at that time (unlike today).

So, I grew up thinking I didn’t have an accent, until I went to college in Philadelphia, a short 2 hour train ride from New York City. As soon as I stepped foot in my freshman dorm, I was teased mercilessly for having a Long Island accent. So much so, I learned to speak with out it by the time I graduated. Like Louis Yap, who affected an American accent to non-Asians; even I learned to speak differently to fit in to what was expected to come out of my mouth.

But it wasn’t until I was older that talking without an accent really affected the way people treated me. In the working world, other Chinese, would automatically assume I was ABC (American Born Chinese) based on my lack of an accent, and that was enough for them to leave me out of their social circles. While the native Chinese speakers hung out in cliques, I always felt like an outsider, even if I could speak a dialect of Chinese flawlessly.

Of course there’s also an upside to speaking perfect English. Everyone assumes I have no knowledge of Chinese, and will tend to make remarks they don’t want me to hear in Chinese. This too has happened to me on more than one occasion, usually when I’m traveling in Asia, and has led to quite some embarrassment for the other party.

So, what’s the moral of the story? Don’t judge a person based on their accent. You may get more than you bargained for.

Posted in Discrimination, Observations | Tagged | 14 Comments

Boxer Kazumi Izaki Debunks East Asian Female Stereotypes

Posted on May 7, 2009 by Teresa

kazumi-izakiIt’s a fierce, ass-kicking East Asian woman on the rise! In the boxing ring, no less! Kazumi Izaki is a 46 year-old Japanese mother who is in the run to becoming the oldest boxer to win a world title. Izaki is a housewife who “dutifully” prepares her husband’s and children’s lunch before she leaves for the gym and is sure to have dinner on the table before she is off to practice again. Women who are able to fulfill the two ends of the so-called gender spectrum seem to be highly revered. Izaki can kick your ass and whip up a mean meal. It seems like the new standard for being an accomplished woman is to be able to be perform both normative masculine and feminine tasks. And to do them well. That makes me feel a little insecure because I’m good at things like… eating large amounts of food and drawing hair, neither of which are so starkly gendered.

It’s great that Izaki debunks the stereotype of East Asian women as submissive, quiet and frail. My initial reaction to the story was a slight surprise (omg, internalized racism at work! nooo!), which evolved into a rush of excitement at the idea of a Japanese woman not filling the stereotypical expectations of her. Then I stopped myself and asked, Why am I surprised? And do I really need to rely on mass media reports on outstanding East Asian women in order to feel that rush of excitement? Like, really? I generally get annoyed with stories like Izaki’s because they shouldn’t have been anything out of the ordinary. Yes, her older age as a boxer is an element of what makes the story, but the racial aspect makes it even more of an appealing one. Why are we still continuously surprised when someone of a certain identity does not fit into the mold that is expected of them?

Then it just made me annoyed and frustrated that the BBC mediated that heightened sense for me. I can point out so many fierce Asian women who are engaged in all sorts of interesting and stimulating things without the help of a media conglomerate standing between us. We are out there! We are strong, interesting and holdin’ it down! Just be more attentive!

After all that ranting analyzing, it is still great for Izaki to have received international exposure. Hopefully, more kick-ass Asian women who are involved in various fields will start to get more media attention.

Hmmm, I can make really ugly and unappealing faces. Does that make me media worthy? An East Asian woman who does stupid shit? Appealing and story-worthy, no? (No.)

Posted in Sports | 5 Comments

Ex-Power Ranger Patricia Ja Lee in Tostitos Commercial

Posted on May 6, 2009 by John

It’s not too often that you see Asians or Asian Americans in national television brand advertising campaigns, so when I do, I blog about it: take the CareerBuilder.com, Wells Fargo and General Electric commercials, for example.

I knew that when I saw this commercial the other day for Tostitos, with an Asian American woman, it would eventually be on YouTube. Well, an admirer just uploaded it and the wisdom of crowds have identified the actress as Korean American Patricia Ja Lee,  best known for her role as Cassie Chan, the Pink Ranger on the television series Power Rangers: Turbo and Power Rangers: In Space. (I have never ever seen an episode of Power Rangers in my life.)

That said, this commercial makes no sense to me; I guess the commercial is trying to convey that these jalapeno flavored tostitos are not too spicey or hot? And similar to the commercial, that the jalapeno flavoring is quiet and subtle? And what does she mean when she says, “Not very subtle, Mom?” [Editor’s Note: John, it means Momma Tostito wants Tostito’s chick to get married and have little baby Tostitos. Like all good Tostitos, er, Asian mothers.]

Posted in Current Events, Entertainment, Observations | 12 Comments

Review: Everything Asian by Sung J. Woo

Posted on May 5, 2009 by Lily Huang

everything-asianIn Everything Asian, Dae Joon Kim is a 12 year old kid whose family has just moved from Korea to New Jersey. Or more precisely, Dae Joon, his mother and his sister have come from Korea to join the father who has been living there alone for five years. The novel depicts their struggle to reintegrate as a family, as well as to make it in America.

The setting is an outdoor strip mall in New Jersey called “Peddlers Town.” The various shops and shopkeepers there serve as minor characters. Although Dae Joon (more often known as “Joon-a,” as his mother calls him) is the central character, some of the chapters make these minor characters the main focus. The point of view switches to theirs while the Koreans become secondary. At other times, the chapter is from the point of view of the mother, or from Hong, another shop owner in the mall.

It’s not as confusing as it sounds. Together, the chapters form an image of this Korean boy’s life in suburbia, and in accordance with contemporary literature, it’s readable, the plot moves ever forward, and even when the characters are miserable, one isn’t allowed to dwell on it for long. One moves on to other problems.

The story of the first generation Asian American is one of the great unsolved puzzles of contemporary literature. Although this latest attempt doesn’t resolve it completely, it hits the board a little closer to the mark.

Posted in Entertainment, Reviews | Leave a comment

Can Asians Innovate in Business?

Posted on May 5, 2009 by Tim

place-setting-comp1I’ve written a few posts here on the lack of Asian executives in American businesses. It’s been argued by some that Asians are just too reserved to be an executive. Others claim it’s because Asians don’t have an entrepreneurial or innovative spirit, and instead they only know how to copy good ideas, rather than come up with them. Randy Pollock, a former USC lecturer, just published a piece describing his experience with Chinese MBA students. Pollock challenged his students to come up with an innovative idea for a business. It could be any type of business and the most innovative would win a prize. He gave as an example a restaurant business. Six teams worked on this project and had two hours. 5 teams came back with restaurant proposals, and the sixth, a catering business proposal. None had wandered from the basic example Pollock gave, none had found their creative voice.

Pollock wrote in his piece as the final punch line:

Ultimately for China, becoming a major world innovator — and by extension, a robust economic power — is not just about setting up partnerships with top Western universities or roping off elites and telling them to think creatively. It’s about establishing an intellectually rich learning environment for young minds. It’s about harnessing the same inventive energy of the street markets and small-time entrepreneurs and putting it in the schools.

The Chinese don’t need expensive free-agent scientists. They need a new farm system — and about 10 million liberal arts professors.

As much as Pollock’s article stereotypes Chinese into one group, I hate to have to agree with him (at least for Chinese innovators). While not all Asians have a problem innovating, I think the Chinese have a particularly difficult time with the idea of being creative. It’s not part of the culture. We’re so ingrained with the idea of conforming and being respectful.

My own dad was the exception. Throughout his life and mine, he asked me not to go to work for a big corporation. He implored me over and over to come up with a good idea and start my own business. He didn’t care what that business was, so long as it was my own. On the other hand I was never very good at coming up with creative ideas for businesses, and instead usually found myself locked away in my own head writing poems and fictional short stories. I always viewed working as a means to end. I got a job to make money, so I’d have money to spend on the things I liked to do. Working wasn’t about working hard to start up a business as my dad wanted me to do. I was too American for my dad’s Chinese work hard ethic.

In the end, I did achieve some success in the business world working for big corporations, and my dad grudgingly gave me some level of respect, in acknowledging I had surpassed his achievements and was a good provider for my family, even if I didn’t run my own business.

Posted in Business, Education, Observations | Tagged | 9 Comments

Formerly Suspended Shock Jock JV Moves to Revision3

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Ernie

jvelvisIf you grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and you’re in your late 20’s to early 30’s, your familiar with Wild 94.9’s The Dog House, with the team of Elvis, JV and Hollywood. As to what happened with The Dog House after the 90’s, JV says it best on his MySpace page: “After The Dog House was fired in 2005, we went to New York. We were kicking ass there, but ran into an unfortunate incident that led to us being fired AGAIN!!”

What it doesn’t say: it was due to a prank call to a Chinese restaurant that involved anti-Asian remarks.

It would be easy blog post to write that JV is racist towards Asians; their prank calls — which were also done in the Bay Area — were always malicious, and the Chinese restaurant prank call which got them fired is absolutely unlistenable. But if The Dog House were ever that mean-spirited in the Bay Area — where a third of the young adult population is Asian and Pacific Islander — the shit would never fly and they wouldn’t have been reached the popularity they did in the 90’s. Someone in radio once told me that the primary demographic for Wild 94.9 was a Latina or Filipina in her early 20’s, and the morning team seemed to reflect that well; they once fired their traffic girl on-air after she said derogatory statements about Filipinos. Their radio producer while at 94.9 was a friend of theirs from high school, an Asian-American guy nicknamed Hollywood.

Reading the various comment threads it sounds like a there’s a discrepancy between San Francisco DogHouse fans of the late 90’s — Bay Area people who miss their crazy-ass radio show when they were in high school and now have kids of their own — and his New York fans, asking Elvis to become “a weatherman at a Chinese station, ‘crowdy wit a chance of eggroe.'” (Also: What the FUCK does that even MEAN?)

As to where original DogHouse team is now, it looks like they’ve gone their separate ways: Elvis “left the show, got some new head shots and started auditioning for commercials and stuff.” A quick Google search reveals that Hollywood looks like he’s  in the controversial world of… police dispatching. As to JV, he’s DJ’ing solo at Wild 94.9 as well as broadcasting a show on Revision3, the same company that produces DiggNation; what he’ll say or do will be anyones guess, but the interesting thing about the Internet is that if he pulls the things he did in New York, the entire Internet will be there to call him out on it. It’s the internet, after all.

And as for me? I stopped listening to Wild 94.9 years ago.

Posted in Discrimination, Entertainment, New York, San Francisco Bay Area | 10 Comments